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Chinese Delegation Visits Clinic to Discuss Lead Abatement

A delegation of Chinese government and University representatives recently visited Washington University Law to discuss environmental issues associated with lead poisoning. In particular, they were interested in work that the school’s Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic has been doing related to problems associated with a Herculaneum, Missouri lead smelter.

The visit was arranged by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which has been working with the Chinese delegation since 2007 to assess health risks from lead pollution and determine what types of health and regulatory interventions might be effective in China. NRDC’s lead partner on the project is Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, in partnership with Tongji Medical College, Yunnan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and Yunnan Provincial Environmental Protection Bureau and its monitoring authority.

The Chinese and NRDC visitors met at the law school with faculty in the school’s Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic and representatives of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, which the clinic has been representing since 2001 in advocating for human health and environmental protection of the Herculaneum community.

The visitors also met at the law school with federal and state government officials who have been pressing Doe Run to clean up the smelter’s operations and remedy environmental contamination. The law school also hosted a dinner with the Chinese delegation and the school’s International and Comparative Law Program.